A little blumat confusion

I want to try Blumats in coco, first for the mums, and then everything if I like them, but every time I go to buy some I get confused about which ones to buy. Blumats or Tropf-Blumats? The green house ones or potted plant ones?

I typically grow a dozen plants in 1 gallon pots.

Thanks.

its the trompf blumats you want pal

Deck and patio kit...comes with 12 cones/dripers and all the parts to get ya going.

Yuppers,

Get the Deck and Patio Kit.

Tropf Blumat & Blumat are the same. Just make sure you dont get the Blumat Junior.

I just got my deck & patio kit, I haven't put it all together yet, but curious me had to take a couple apart to see how they work. Apparently it's magic. But I did notice the little valve on top had pinched the feeder hose shut, so I had to pull the hoses out and pop the 'pinch' open.

Just a heads up for anyone else new to Blumats.

AriesXX said:

Would anyone be willing to sell me 2 of these? I don't need a dozen

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Well you will need more than just the blumats. You at least need the 3mm line and the blumats from them. Everything else can be sourced other places. The 80 bucks for the kit is more than worth it.

I just picked up a few of the big ones, at a local hydro shop. They didn't come with any instructions. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Cheers,

I could try and explain it, but the manufacturer will probably do a better job, they have pictures and everything...


http://www.blumat.at/automatic-watering-system.php#bltropf?id=5

Hey, for any of you running blumats in coco, how do you DTW? Do you adjust them to flush periodically or something? Curious 'bout that...

I'm new to the blumats, but from what I can tell blumats maintain a constant amount of moisture. You can regulate how much moisture with the little valve on top, so you can run dry, or you can run wet, you can even run to run off. But as for the occasional flush, you'd have to adjust each blumat manually and then dial it back when you feel the flush is done. Unless you mean a water flush, then you would just fill your rez with water and let 'em drip away.

There is no dry down time in between waterings like there is with a traditional drip system. The blumat maintains constant moisture as per your personal liking.

Right, right. It's just, I run coco handwatered drain to waste, and it just seems like with a constant moisture level the salts could accumulate pretty quickly. Guess it would be, like you said, frequent hand-watered flushes. Probably be a hassle to adjust all the cones every day or other... I'll bet some people have them dialed in and could shed light on it..

Yeah, yeah, here is a lengthy thread on blumats==


https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=111046

Most all moisture meters do not work with non-soil media, even the real sophisticated expensive ones. So, good luck with the Blumats in coco. Keep us informed.

and it just seems like with a constant moisture level the salts could accumulate pretty quickly

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Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but from my understanding salts (from nutes) only accumulate if the coco dries. If not, and you're plants are not eating, then they just build up if the coco is kept moist....causing lockouts of other elements. Hence the need for proper PH and a good nute profile.

What I do know is anything grown in coco grows best when coco is kept moist and watered mulitple times a day. I've tried letting them get slightly dry in the past between waterings, I've tried one watering a day, I've tried multiple waterings a day.
IME...grows turn out best when you keep the coco as close to a constant moisture that you can achieve. The blumats are perfect for this. I used to hand water to waste, and this is my first grow with blumats to waste. I switched so I could keep the aforementioned moisture control, and to get my life back.

So unless you're around your grow 24/7 and can baby sit the moisture levels in your coco, then a drip system is the way to go. What I like about the blumats over a conventional drip system (pumps, etc....) is that there is a sensor in each pot...so the drippers are activated specific to what each plant is doing. If one plant is using more water/food...then only that one dripper will turn on more to supplement the uptake of the plant. This is very helpful if more than one strain is run and you have a picky ass sativa that eats differently than the Indica next to it.

Follow the last link that dunkydunk provided. Great thread and 99% of your questions answered right there. Plus most of the users in there are in coco.


Edit: this method only applies to established plants, not seedlings.

Hey Greentrich, how do?
I know what you're saying about salts accumulating when the coco dries, but in a sense it's drying all the time, concentrating, which is why more water needs to be added to the pot. Only if the plant used up every last bit of nutrient in the water would salt accumulation not occur. Or, at least, that's my rudimentary understanding of it.

Put another way, what makes a blumat setup less likely to cause salt buildup than one that is handwatered gently and frequently with no runoff, ever? It's the same thing, it seems. Of course, I haven't handwatered without runoff, but I can't see how buildups would not occur. Maybe at very low ppm it could work?

Some random posts have popped up from people treating the coco just like soil, watering with little or no runoff. Don't remember seeing any full threads or pictures at harvest, though... I do like the concept of the blumats, in any case.

Edit: just saw the phrase "blumats to waste" in your post. That's basically where my question is. What exactly does that refer to? Do you just set them to a slow, constant runoff?

dramamine said:

Hey Greentrich, how do?
I know what you're saying about salts accumulating when the coco dries, but in a sense it's drying all the time, concentrating, which is why more water needs to be added to the pot. Only if the plant used up every last bit of nutrient in the water would salt accumulation not occur. Or, at least, that's my rudimentary understanding of it.

Put another way, what makes a blumat setup less likely to cause salt buildup than one that is handwatered gently and frequently with no runoff, ever? It's the same thing, it seems. Of course, I haven't handwatered without runoff, but I can't see how buildups would not occur. Maybe at very low ppm it could work?

Some random posts have popped up from people treating the coco just like soil, watering with little or no runoff. Don't remember seeing any full threads or pictures at harvest, though... I do like the concept of the blumats, in any case.

Edit: just saw the phrase "blumats to waste" in your post. That's basically where my question is. What exactly does that refer to? Do you just set them to a slow, constant runoff?

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Get some Drip Clean and add .4ml per Gal. Set your Blumat to keep moist, never any run off. The Drip Clean prevents salt build up, so no need to flush until a week before harvest. Elevate your pots incase they do have run-off, but best growth is without any at all. Good luck.

Hey there Dram,,,,

Ya..what Slow said. With hand watering, I did water to runoff. But with BMs...I won't be. Take a look at his grow for instance. He doesn't water to runoff.

I know what you're saying about salts accumulating when the coco dries, but in a sense it's drying all the time, concentrating, which is why more water needs to be added to the pot. Only if the plant used up every last bit of nutrient in the water would salt accumulation not occur. Or, at least, that's my rudimentary understanding of it.

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My rudimentary understanding is that nutes only turn to damaging salts when the coco gets almost bone dry. If the plant doesn't eat...say you admin 1.4 ec they only eat .8 ec, then you get stacking..not salts. Stacking lead to lockouts.
I could be off on this, but this is just what I have experienced. I could let my nutes sit in a bucket of water for a week, those nutes won't turn to salt...until the water is gone. So as long as the coco is moist, salts aren't a concern for me.

what makes a blumat setup less likely to cause salt buildup than one that is handwatered gently and frequently with no runoff

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As far as I can tell...to answer this question...nothing. However, you would have to water as frequently as the blumats are. This is the main reason I like these: I get my life back. I, and the rest of my family, is tired of me disappearing for over an hour (sometimes 2 when it gets later in the game) after I get home from a 12 hour work day. With these, all I will have to do is come home, make sure there is still water in my rez, and make sure the PH is stable...done. Once a week I plan on doing rez maintenance (cleaning, re-filling with fresh fertigation solution, etc...).

Whether it be blumats, or an automated drip system...I don't see anyone watering to runoff. Only with hand watering to I read of folks watering with runoff.

Each growers' method is different along with environment. But there is once constant I have observed....hand watering is done once, maybe twice a day. So ya, there is that chance of drying out which would necessitate run off. With a drip system...especially blumats that you can set to your own moisture level...there is constant moisture control. Whether your asleep, or your plants are, water is flowing. This keeps the medium wet so the chance of nutes turning to salt is minimal at best. Also...like I said before...this is where a good established nute profile comes into play, along with PH monitoring.

If things keep going the way they are, my sweet little greenlings will be going into their blumat/smartpot homes this weekend. If you like, I will keep you updated on my progress and how things go...if that helps you out at all.

I hope this helps and isn't too wordy.

Thanks for the replies. It's interesting stuff, for sure. I do understand what your saying about salts not accumulating because of constant moisture. Whether it's stacking or salt accumulation, doesn't the EC that is in the pot rise as more nutes are dripped in, but not out? Guess that's where the Drip-Clean is crucial?

dramamine said:

Thanks for the replies. It's interesting stuff, for sure. I do understand what your saying about salts not accumulating because of constant moisture. Whether it's stacking or salt accumulation, doesn't the EC that is in the pot rise as more nutes are dripped in, but not out? Guess that's where the Drip-Clean is crucial?

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That's what I'm trying to figure out. I have one blumat hooked up to my mother as a trial run. My current set up is drip in bloom and handwater in veg, in both I like to see a little runoff. With the blumat set to no runoff on my mother, I'm wondering if I'll need to lower the nute strength since I won't be getting a little flush with every feeding. I use canna nutes with good results feeding dtw at 770 ppm (1.0 ec?).Even at that, I'll get some build up of nutes during the grow, as measured in the runoff. How much lower can you go?

Or is that where the drip clean comes in, to serve as a buffer against salt build up in the coco?

Or is it that if I'm getting higher numbers in the runoff than what I'm feeding now doing dtw (even if the plants look perfectly healthy), than I'm already overfeeding as it is?

dunkydunk said:

That's what I'm trying to figure out. I have one blumat hooked up to my mother as a trial run. My current set up is drip in bloom and handwater in veg, in both I like to see a little runoff. With the blumat set to no runoff on my mother, I'm wondering if I'll need to lower the nute strength since I won't be getting a little flush with every feeding. I use canna nutes with good results feeding dtw at 770 ppm (1.0 ec?).Even at that, I'll get some build up of nutes during the grow, as measured in the runoff. How much lower can you go?

Or is that where the drip clean comes in, to serve as a buffer against salt build up in the coco?

Or is it that if I'm getting higher numbers in the runoff than what I'm feeding now doing dtw (even if the plants look perfectly healthy), than I'm already overfeeding as it is?

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First of all, do not trust run off numbers in Coco. It is not an exact science, because of CEC. Drip Clean prevents salt build up, that is what it is for. I have been using it for a long time now and the only time I run Nutes to run off is when I hand water Kool Bloom a few times in Flower. Other than that they never run off until 7-10 days before Chop.

H&G say a 3 day flush is good...I beg to differ. Do atleast 5, hand water to run off flushing. Using Drip Clean will prevent clogging of lines also. Good luck.